St.George Queensland Reds team to play Highlanders at Suncorp Stadium

May 24 • General News, Super Rugby, Super Rugby News • 1284 Views • Comments Off on St.George Queensland Reds team to play Highlanders at Suncorp Stadium

The St.George Queensland Reds have named their team to take on the Highlanders at Suncorp Stadium this Saturday.

The Reds have made two personnel changes to the starting XV from last week’s narrow loss to the Hurricanes, with 19-year-old lock Harry Hockings earning his run-on debut and Izaia Perese returning to the wing.

The match will be Hockings’ ninth in Vodafone Super Rugby, after making his debut in Round 3. He has been named to start ahead of Kane Douglas, who has moved to the bench.

Perese is back in the starting side for the first time since Round 10 and takes the place of first-year flyer Filipo Daugunu, who has dropped out of the match-day 23.

The Reds have opted for a six-two split on the bench, allowing the return of flanker Caleb Timu, who has recovered from an ankle injury suffered in Queensland’s Round 11 win over the Lions.

Reds head coach Brad Thorn said: “We’ve kept a pretty similar side to last week.

“Kane (Douglas) had a good game last week and he has been in strong form, but we felt the time was right to give Harry (Hockings) an opportunity to start. He has been making great strides in his development and this is the next step for him. Kane will provide good impact off the bench.

“Izaia (Perese) has been working hard to get back to the form he showed us in the pre-season, before his knee injury. He has had some chances off the bench and now he gets another crack in the starting side.

“It’s good to see Caleb (Timu) return from injury too. He was in damaging form before that setback and hopefully he will bounce back quickly.

“It’s another tough challenge this weekend. The Highlanders are a good side and they’ll be hurting.

“We have shown we can be competitive. Now we need to take it to the next level.

“The guys are pumped to be back at home this weekend. We haven’t played in front of the Queensland faithful in four weeks and the last time we were there was a pretty special win over the Lions. We’re hoping to replicate that great atmosphere on Saturday.”

The Reds play the Highlanders at Suncorp Stadium this Saturday at 7:45pm. Tickets are available at www.redsrugby.com.au. The match will also be broadcast live on Fox Sports.

This week’s match-day charity is GingerCloud Foundation’s Modified Rugby Program – a modified form of touch Rugby for young players with learning and perceptual disabilities. For more information, or to get involved, visit http://www.mymrp.org/the-mrp2.

St.George Queensland Reds team to play Highlanders
7:45pm AEST, Saturday 26 May – Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
1. JP Smith – GPS
2. Brandon Paenga-Amosa – Sunnybank
3. Taniela Tupou – Brothers
4. Izack Rodda – Easts
5. Harry Hockings – University of Queensland (run-on debut)
6. Angus Scott-Young – University of Queensland
7. George Smith – Brothers
8. Scott Higginbotham (C) – Wests
9. Ben Lucas – Sunnybank
10. Jono Lance – University of Queensland
11. Jordan Petaia – Wests
12. Duncan Paia’aua – Norths
13. Samu Kerevi – Souths
14. Izaia Perese – Easts
15. Hamish Stewart – Bond University

16. Andrew Ready – Easts
17. Sef Fa’agase – University of Queensland
18. Ruan Smith – GPS
19. Kane Douglas – Norths
20. Caleb Timu – Souths
21. Liam Wright – Easts
22. Moses Sorovi – Wests
23. Aidan Toua – Easts